


To Turn Back Time

by 55anon (Anon)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Mindfuck, Timeloops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:23:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7353319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anon/pseuds/55anon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi meets the devil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Turn Back Time

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to write something happy and came up with this. What the fuck.

They win.

When the last Titan evaporates, hissing, Levi calls his horse.  Sheathes his blades.  Rides hard.  At some point it starts raining.  At some point it stops.  The air is thick and they've slowed to a trot.  Mountains, rivers, forests.  At some point it's nightfall.  Then daybreak.  Levi's hands are shaking and he dismounts to vomit.  Nothing comes up.  He can't stop dry heaving.

 

Under a tree, he meets the devil.

 

"Make a deal with me," he says.  "I will grant you any wish."

 

Levi ignores him.  Erwin's eyes are broken.

 

"Make a deal with me," the devil urges.  "I will give you anything."

 

He's so pale.  Impossibly pale and cold.  Levi went back-- he shouldn't have, but he went back and his body was crushed under his horse and Levi couldn't move the metric fuckton but he'd tried knowing it was futile and when he'd hacked the horse to pieces to pry out Erwin's body his torso ripped open.  Ribs crushed, jagged along his heart.  Levi kept pulling, didn't see or notice, just felt the body give and he thought he was making progress until he heard a sick snap and he fell, dragging pieces.  He'd broken Erwin's spine.

 

"I can give you money, power, fame."

 

Levi laughed.  "Fuck off."

 

"I can give you glory."

 

"I'm already famous," his voice was hoarse.  "You're shit at making bargains."

 

"Love, then," the devil suggested.  "I can raise the dead, bring back the one you love."

 

Levi shuddered.  "No.  They're better off in hell."

 

"Are you sure," the devil said, sly.

 

He didn't bother to answer.  His horse was standing, sleeping.  He didn't want to wake her up.

 

But his hindbrain, the terrible thing which refused to die, was already kicking in, making ready for survival.  Levi was already walking towards her, mapping out their journey when the devil said,

 

"I can turn back time."

 

Levi froze.  For a moment, but it was a moment the devil saw.  He roused his horse from her exhausted slumber.

 

Suddenly, the devil was next to him.

 

"That's it, isn't it-- I can turn back time, and you can prevent all this from ever happening.  I'll even take you back to the moment you can make a difference."

 

"Tch.  As if I would trust you."

 

But he didn't mount his horse.

 

"I'll take you back and you can change his path-- you can have a normal life."

 

Levi closed his eyes.  He had no fucking idea what normal meant.

 

"You and your Commander.  You'll even have your memories, clear as day.  That's not something everyone gets in the bargain," the devil grinned.  His eyes were malicious.

 

Levi exhaled.  "Fuck off."  He mounted his horse.

 

" _And_ ," the devil said, "he can keep his memories too.  You'll _both_  remember, and be free to build the future he desired.  You'll have a second chance to be free men."

 

The devil put his hands on bridle, gently coaxing Levi's exhausted horse to sleep.

 

Levi's eyes narrowed, hands slack at the reins.

 

"What do you get out of this."

 

"Nothing at all!  If you both live your lives with no regrets, you won't have to pay a thing.  It's another chance to live the lives you both deserve."

 

"Not buying."

 

"Come now, you and I both know you'll strike this bargain."

 

"Not on those terms, fuckwit.  'Live a life with no regrets'?  Let go of my horse."

 

"Wait, wait.  I admit, who could believe anything I've told you.  Usually you humans are more _desperate_."

 

And suddenly, the devil changed form.  His eyes were blue, unbroken.  His voice transformed.  His shoulders were broad, with one sleeve hanging.  Hair parted neatly and _scent_ \--

 

Levi closed his eyes.  A mistake, because--

 

A warm hand on his back and he felt the devil breathing on his neck, Erwin's scent enveloping and his fucking horse leaning forward in recognition.

 

"Levi," the devil said, in Erwin's voice.  "Make a deal with me.  I will grant you any wish."

 

Levi was going to punch him, he was going to break his neck and break his solar plexus--

 

"Make a deal with me," Erwin said.  "And I will give you freedom."

 

His fucking _voice_ \--

 

"It's not going to work," Levi ground out.

 

"It's already working," Erwin yanked his hair and kissed him, hard.

 

Levi kissed back.  He kissed back, and plunged his sword into Erwin's heart.

 

Erwin stepped back.  "Now there was no need to go do that," he said, coolly drawing the sword out.  His eyes were blue, impossibly blue.

 

Levi didn't answer.  He struck another blow which Erwin easily parried, having suddenly regained his missing arm.

 

"Really, Levi.  I come back from the dead and this is your response?"

 

"You always were an inconsiderate asshole."  All of Levi's blows were meant to kill.

 

"How do you know I wasn't the devil all along?" Erwin asked, that fucking _look_  on his face.  "Perhaps I had to die, so humanity could be free."

 

"Erwin had better lies, you fuck.  If you're going to wear his face then at least come up with something better," he sliced through Erwin's neck.  It came away clean, and Erwin simply grinned.

 

"On the contrary, Erwin always knew the truth was the best place to conceal a lie.  Some truths are too horrifying to consider."

 

Levi hacked off Erwin's sword arm and drove his blade deep into Erwin's hip.  Bits of muscle and bone came away, but Erwin remained standing.

 

"That's why humanity was so eager to live alongside the Titans.  Erwin's little war forced them to face truths they couldn't endure."

 

"Shut up."

 

"How much longer, do you think, before this cycle repeats again?"

 

"Shut the fuck up."  He slashed into Erwin's face.  It started bleeding.

 

"Truly, you didn't think that the war would _change anything_ , did you?"  Erwin had that _fucking look_  on his face and Levi--

 

"Shut you fucking _face_ " and he unleashed his finest form, dredging up energy from some dark place and even the devil had to stop his relentless chatter to defend himself from all the blows.

 

But Erwin was no match for Levi.  Levi lost count of how many limbs he sliced, how many heads he cut off, how many times he sliced Erwin's tendons and knees and biceps and that fucking neck nape.  The ground around them was strewn with pieces, and this was something he knew, this was something he could recognize, this was something he could do-- kill Titans.  Only it was Erwin's broken eyes looking up at him, and Erwin's shattered mouth, and Erwin's screams echoing in his skull, and Erwin, Erwin, Erwin

 

heart and lungs and liver and guts pouring out, his blade growing dull, he was getting tired, he was ripping Erwin apart, he was massacring Erwin, why was he doing this, why was he crying, why was he screaming, why was he killing Erwin again and again, cutting off his hands and calves and slicing through his throat, the blood welling up and Erwin was choking, Erwin was regenerating, Erwin kept coming, reaching, trying to say something and Levi kept killing, kept killing and killing, but why was Erwin dying, why was Erwin taking the blows, why was he kneeling, why wasn't Erwin fighting, his head was bowed he was looking up his eyes were closed he looked at Levi his eyes were broken his hands were shaking he took the pain he said nothing he was saying nothing he didn't reach his limbs regrew he waited waited as the sword grew blunter and blunter and Levi plunged his blade into Erwin's heart and it broke, it snapped, ringing and ringing and ringing

 

Levi stopped.  Erwin did not pull the blade from his heart.  He was kneeling, head bowed.  Something terrible started to creep through the numbness.

 

Blood welled up from Erwin's mouth.  He started coughing.  Levi stared, the ground around them littered with heads.  All with broken eyes.  Erwin was trying to say his name.  His arm was gone.  His legs were cut out from under him.

 

Erwin was gagging, choking as the blood welled in his mouth.  He stretched his hand out to Levi.  Levi stood still as the hand, that rough, callused hand touched his face.  He watched with growing horror as the hand formed a salute, over Erwin's heart.

 

He caught the body as it crumpled to the ground.  Erwin smiled up at him, through the blood.

 

"No no no no no no no no no no" Levi nestled Erwin's head, gently laid him to the ground, that fucking blade impaled in his heart

 

he took Erwin's hand

 

he took Erwin's hand

 

Erwin smiled up at him, his mouth forming the shape of Levi's name

 

"no Erwin I'm so sorry no don't don't go fuck fuck this fuck this Erwin don't go don't go stop no Erwin no-- Erwin-- no-- don't fucking die-- don't die-- don't _fucking die_ \-- Erwin, please--"

 

Erwin smiled up at him and touched Levi's face before his eyes

 

before his eyes

 

before his eyes

 

the blood welling in his mouth

 

choking

 

gagging

 

and Levi was screaming

 

and Levi was sobbing

 

and Erwin was warm, so fucking warm

 

the blood welling

 

his mouth went slack

 

the blood stopped coming

 

his eyes were broken

 

and Levi was screaming

 

cradling Erwin's head

 

and sobbing

 

sobbing

 

sobbing

 

rocking back and forth

 

rocking

 

rocking

 

rocking

 

having lost all sense of anything

 

except the knowledge that Erwin's body

 

Erwin's body

 

the heat was seeping

 

getting cold

 

colder

 

cold

 

and he was sobbing.

 

And a voice behind him whispered

_I can grant you any wish_

_I can turn back time_

and he was holding Erwin's carcass--

 

He had broken Erwin's spine.

 

 

 

 


End file.
